Lately, I’ve read a number of news stories about this sort of thing. Out of curiosity, has there, in fact, been a recent uptick? If so, does anyone know why?
Rufus F.
Rufus is a likeable curmudgeon. He has a PhD in History, sang for a decade in a punk band, and recently moved to NYC after nearly two decades in Canada. He wrote the book "The Paris Bureau" from Dio Press (2021).
Devcat is watching over, but if you notice any problems contact the editors and Devcat will be notified and deployed immediately.
on Paper: Inflation and the 2024 US Presidential ElectionEvery developed country in the world experienced inflation In Switzerland and several East Asian eco…
on Weekend Plans Post: On a Plane to IcelandHrm. I always felt like the experience was an epiphenomenon of the deeper quest for a dinner jacket… on Weekend Plans Post: On a Plane to IcelandYou did good.
on Weekend Plans Post: On a Plane to IcelandIt's more of an 'experience'. The old way was a sales-guy talking about the fabric/color/style and t…
on Paper: Inflation and the 2024 US Presidential ElectionEdward Bennett Williams, probably the greatest trial lawyer of the generation before mine, said that… on Weekend Plans Post: On a Plane to IcelandWe have seen the lava. My buddy's eyes are better than mine, he claims to have seen the spouts from… on Weekend Plans Post: On a Plane to IcelandThe last time I got a sport coat ("It's not a blazer, sir"), I was blessed to have a chubby tailor e… on Open Mic for the week of 11/18/2024Withdrawing from the treaty wouldn't prohibit other countries from taking actions; the treaty is sel… on Weekend Plans Post: On a Plane to IcelandYeah, it turns out that the dark green suit I was interested in was 'last year's' style and all they…
on Open Mic for the week of 11/18/2024I am relatively hawkish on Ukraine since they proved their willingness to fight for their independen…
November 23, 2024
November 22, 2024
November 21, 2024
November 20, 2024
on ICC Follows Through on Arrest Warrants for Israeli PM Netanyahu & Others
on Open Mic for the week of 11/18/2024 on Paper: Inflation and the 2024 US Presidential Election on ICC Follows Through on Arrest Warrants for Israeli PM Netanyahu & Others
on ICC Follows Through on Arrest Warrants for Israeli PM Netanyahu & Others on ICC Follows Through on Arrest Warrants for Israeli PM Netanyahu & Others
on Weekend Plans Post: On a Plane to Iceland on Weekend Plans Post: On a Plane to Iceland
on Weekend Plans Post: On a Plane to Iceland
on Open Mic for the week of 11/18/2024 on ICC Follows Through on Arrest Warrants for Israeli PM Netanyahu & Others
on All the President’s Nominees: The Legion of Groom
on Paper: Inflation and the 2024 US Presidential Election on Open Mic for the week of 11/18/2024 on ICC Follows Through on Arrest Warrants for Israeli PM Netanyahu & Others
Well there are also three potential mosques that have become controversial with some national political figures trying to stop them from being built. and of course there are prominent figures who insist all of Islam is one monolith who is out to kill us all. Would bigotry not be an obvious answer?Report
@gregiank, That’s partly what I’m referring to- I keep reading about people freaking out over mosque construction in NYC, and Tennessee and I think California too. And, it’s probably pure coincidence, but some of the blogs I read have become really incensed about Islam in recent months and their views seem to have hardened considerably. My question is really why they would get so intense about it right now? Did something change? Is it the election cycle? Or something to do with the war? Or was there a major terrorist attack I missed? It just seems like a weird time to become hardliners.Report
@Rufus, ever since the 70’s, the liberals have been leaving The Church in droves.
The fruit of leaving The Church in the hands of right-wingers is finally ripening.
If only the left hadn’t abandoned The Church! Woe!Report
@Rufus, I don’t think any special event has happened. There has been a strong current of Muslim hatred since 2001. I think the mosque near ground zero may be the biggest “event” that has spurred this. Gingrich and Palin have both made it a big issue which has drawn even more attention. I’m sure the election has led P and G to stick their snoots into the issue.Report
Serious take, how many Koran burnings have there been?
This is the first one I’ve heard of… and to find that it’s a religion saying that another religion sucks is surprisingly unsurprising to me.
Have there been a spate of these things? Google News seems to indicate that all of the articles are about one church in particular…Report
@Jaybird, The reason I asked though is it could all be coincidence- I just heard about this book burning at roughly the same time I read about three or four mosques coming under fire either for existing or being soon to exist, which was right around the same time that a handful of blogs I read went off the deep end about “the evil death cult of Islam”. So I was wondering if things really were getting nuttier for some reason or if it just seems that way.Report
@Rufus, eh, there’s a lot of stuff that was repressed and repressed *HARD* in the days that followed 9/11.
One of the reasons, I suspect, that folks are so willing to put up with something as vile as the TSA is because they assume that Muslims are getting it just as good and hard… so they’re willing to put up with grandmas being patted down and being forced to throw their potential binary explosives into a 55-gallon drum filled with other potential binary explosives.
But what’s happened in the last year?
Well, there was that Hassan guy who did his thing last November… and, yes, recently there has been a somewhat significant problem with the whole “pictures of Mohammed” thing that not only resulted in a huge number of threats but also may or may not have resulted in a car bomb in Times Square.
I remember reading, in the days after 9/11, about a handful of attacks on people who were either Muslims or Sikhs mistaken for Muslims… but my response tended more towards surprise that there were so few rather than that there were so many (indeed, there were more Mosques burned in Canada in the months following 9/11 than in the US).
I worry that the stuff that was repressed will, in fact, come out.Report
@Jaybird,
I just hope we don’t get internment part duex. If republicans don’t do as I suspect they will in the congressional elections I’ll be really scared. I don’t want them to take the house but I also don’t want people to be shot.Report
@ThatPirateGuy, if we’re lucky, someone will start an argument over who is most likely to be internmented.Report
I think the answer is pretty simple. Poor economies usually lead to an uptick in xenophobia, we already have a highly partisan atmosphere, and you’ve got Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin out there talking about how mosque building “stabs hearts.” Who knows what they’re saying out there in radioland. It’ll probably quiet down after the election/once the job situation starts to improve.Report
Seriously? You need to ask this?
Let’s see what else is going on in recent years. The right is spewing more and more vitriol and hate speech. “Conservatives” are turning militant with their hate speech. Right wingers are doctoring videos to “show” that non-right wingers are racists. Other right wingers in the media are spewing hate speech and some deranged individuals are starting to act on that hate speech. You have people saying health reform will create death panels that will not allow old farts to live. And, you are surprised that a church is getting ready to perform an act of hate toward another group?
The trend in recent years is toward more extreme hate against those who are not like a certain religious white conservative group. It is a sad stereotype, but, like many stereotypes, it starts out with the ring of truth.Report
@Tally, Again, my question wasn’t where it comes from; just whether anyone had noticed an uptick in recent months.Report